Bug 419181

Summary: Testcase for OpenOffice.org Calc/Excel
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Răzvan Sandu <rsandu2004>
Component: openoffice.orgAssignee: Caolan McNamara <caolanm>
Status: CLOSED UPSTREAM QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: rawhideCC: jnavrati
Target Milestone: ---   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: All   
URL: http://www.ambience.sk/open-office-text-number-format-conversion
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
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Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2008-01-14 17:16:10 UTC Type: ---
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Description Flags
Microsoft Excel file to test. none

Description Răzvan Sandu 2007-12-11 03:32:57 UTC
Hello,

Description of problem:

The attached spreadsheet file (.xls) behaves differently if it is open in
Microsoft Excel 2003 or in OpenOffice.org Calc 2.3.1.

(At least) totals at the bottom of column I are different.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
openoffice.org-calc-2.3.0-6.7.fc8

How reproducible:
Always.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Please open the attached .xls file in Excel 2003 and note the bottom totals
in column I.
2.Please open the attached .xls file in OpenOffice.org Calc and note the (now
different) bottom totals in column I.
  
Actual results:
Recalculated formulas give different mathematical answers.

Expected results:
Recalculated formulas should give the same mathematical answer.

Additional info:
Please don't shoot me ;-) for the corectness of this file; it was not created by
me. The file is provided „as it is”, without any assumption of its corectness,
just to serve as a testcase. It is one of the many files an average user creates
in his/hers day-by-day work in a large office.

Comment 1 Răzvan Sandu 2007-12-11 03:35:26 UTC
Created attachment 283591 [details]
Microsoft Excel file to test.

Comment 2 Răzvan Sandu 2007-12-11 04:55:43 UTC
Hello again,

As far as I can figure it out, if one tries to export this Excel file as .ods
(either via the Sun plugin for Microsoft Office or by directly opening the file
in Calc), numbers get converted to text: an apostrophe is added in front of each
digit in columns E and F. Of course, further calculations cannot be performed.

I don't know if the above is the only issue that gets an incorrect mathematical
calculation.

In the mean time, I found no way to (automatically) remove the apostophes or to
format the cells in columns E and F as numbers. Can you please provide a way to
do this or point to the relevant documentation ?

Such an issue is a *serious showstopper* for a less-skilled IT person, let's say
an accountant.


Regards,
Răzvan


Comment 3 Răzvan Sandu 2007-12-13 11:34:04 UTC
I think the correct behaviour of Calc should be to issue a warning when some
formula tries to perform calculations with numerals that are treated as text.

In Excel 2003's help I've identified a quick procedure for converting a range of
cells that are treated as text back to numerals (by multiplying them with 1,
using Paste Special from the Edit menu).

Regards,
Răzvan

Comment 4 Răzvan Sandu 2007-12-17 02:12:33 UTC
Hello,


This seems to be a solution, but the problem remains *very* annoying:

http://www.ambience.sk/open-office-text-number-format-conversion

Besides the steps given at the link above, it requires selecting the affected
cells and doing a Format -> Default Formatting; if one doesn't do that, the
regular expression replacement won't work.


Regards,
Răzvan

Comment 5 Caolan McNamara 2008-01-14 17:16:10 UTC
Indeed (long delay for me to find a copy of excel), excel itself warns about
this with little warnings symbols, but it does work. What's strange to me is
that it works with text formatted cells of more than one character, but not with
text formatted cells of one character. Let's check with upstream, there's more
expertise there wrt. calc issues and it affects all versions, not just the
fedora one. http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=85242